Hey there!!
Ready for the next part?
If you are wondering what this is all about you can check out the original post Here and then Part 1 HERE brings us to part 2, which we are about to undertake right now!!
Okay so your pages, photo mats and date tabs are ready to roll.
Today we are going to do the front and back covers.
7. The front and back covers are made out of thick chipboard and they measure 16cm x 16cms square. Make sure your edges are smooth, cause if there are any rough edges this will show through your paper. So a quick run over with sandpaper will get all those furry edges off.
8. Next we are going to cut a circle out of the centre of the front piece of chipboard. If you have a Fiskars ultrashapexpress, then now is the time to whip it out as well as your circle shape template with a circle measuring 3.5". Now if you don't have this don't panic, find a circle shape and use your craft knife.
NOTE: for those who haven't played with chipboard much before, it is made up of lots of layers, so you can very successfully cut through a few layers at a time, peeling back to reveal the next layer underneath, this leaves you with a recessed circle that your photo and embellishments will actually sit down into.
9. So cut through some layers until you can see and feel your indent - now i won't give you a measurement here just in case you all have different thicknesses of chipboard!! But it should look something like this
Use your craft knife to help lift it up to peel.
10. Give this another gentle sand to get off the furry bits. Now, choose a piece of paper for the front of the cover and cut to 19cms x 19cms, i have done mine in different PP's and i have chosen embossed papers as these are a little sturdier than regular paper.
11. With your paper right side down, apply glue with your brush again, be sure to cover every bit, but be careful not to put too much, let me put it this way, by the time you have covered your piece of paper, you will have to work quite quickly so it doesn't dry before you adhere to your chipboard. Now place the hole side down - you are covering the front remember, it will look like this..
12. Trim your corners the same as in the photo, but don't cut them right into the pointy bit, otherwise when you fold your edges in you will be left with a bare, open corner - not nice :0( !!
Then fold in your opposite sides, smoothing down as you go, like this..
See those cuts in the middle, that is where your circle is, when you get to this stage i want you to use your craft knife to put cuts in the circle to help relax the paper so that you can mould it in to the shape of the circle, use a bone scorer and your finger to gently press into the edges of your circle. You will have to work quickly as the glue dries quick. As you can see i pressed a little too hard on my craft knife, lol!! This will be covered but maybe a little softer from you guys :0).
13. Once you have that done you will probably have to apply another lick of glue to the other ends. When you fold these, first pinch the little end bits in - you can just see on the left, this tiny little pinch will ensure that you have a nice neat closed corner. None of that bare yukky stuff i was telling you about in step 12!!
OKAY WHACK IT UNDER SOMETHING HEAVY!!
**TIP**: That bookbinders i used to work at had house bricks covered in vinyl, this is what they used for weights. They then put a thick piece of board on top of the work and then the weight and everything got stacked under these. We used to build towers - stacks of books everywhere!! When i got to this point in my album, i had scoured the backyard and found an old clay paver, made sure it was dry and wrapped it in a plastic shopping bag - being sure not to have any crinkly bits that would lie on my work and leave marks or indents and i put this directly onto the pieces. You could put a bread board on top of your pieces then your brick on top to give a wider surface area to be weighted, but i would probably put a protective piece of paper in between the bread board, just in case any grease marks come out.
Okay so this is your front, you can just see littles slits coming out the side of the photo, where i have cut to relax the paper and on the left i have broken the paper but that is okay, we will cover it!! Now you can cut out a photo of your choice using the 3'' circle so that it sits down in the recess and adhere with double sided tape.
14. Righteo flip it back over and adhere the inside piece of paper with glue to the back of this to cover up your chipboard, this will be 15.5cms x 15.5 cms square, so you will have a little border of your cover paper showing as well. Put it under your weight while you repeat the whole process again with your back cover. The only difference is you won't have a hole cut in it, but all the measurements are the same, so you are repeating from step 10 onwards. Note i used different pp for each side.
15. Leave your front and back covers under weight now while we go back to our tabs and photo mats.
Firstly you can go through and date all your tabs, i used a stamp for the "April" and wrote the date and year in my own handwriting, do them all BEFORE we stick them in, much easier. Now i decided that i was going to stick all my photo mats in the portrait position, and that if i have any photos that are landscape, that i am simply going to turn my album to look at them. You might prefer not to stick you mats down at this point and that is fine. So make sure that your pages have their rounded corners on your right as you are looking at them. You can then go through and stick your photo mat 1/2 an inch in from the left hand side of each page, centered in the middle of the top and bottom. The quickest way to do this is to go through and stick all the tops sides, then flip and come back and stick all the reverse sides, cause remember your pages are double sided.
Remember put them under weight like this
Thats my paving block in the plastic bag i was telling you about, lol!!!
The last thing to do today it to attach your tabs. Make sure they are in order!! Using your glue and paint brush go through and sandwhich a page in between 2 tabs, so the 1st and 2nd of April will be glued together with the top of the page in between, does that make sense?
You can then alternate them to be on the left top of the photo mat and on the next page they will be on the right top of the photo mat, back to the left on the next page, and so on.
Right!!! Put them under weight..... and i am sure you have had enough of my voice today, lol!!
tomorrow we will finish the embellishing and holepunching and you will be all ready to start your photo taking next Wednesday!!
Have a pleasant Friday evening, i have been at school tuckshop all day today so i am definately looking forward to putting my feet up.
bfn
annette :0)
OK...I'm enjoying this Annette...so nice to play around and have some fun doing something different and being able to use supplies from our stash.......
I have cheated a bit......I have used some acrylic mini album covers from Kylie for my covers...so I'll embellish those tomorrow.....loving doing this....so much fun
Posted by: Lyn Dwyer | March 27, 2009 at 09:08 PM
Well now Mrs Dwyer, i am glad to hear you are improvising, lol!! After all thats what its all about, i trust we will see the finished product at the end ;0) I am glad you guys are playing along, looking forward to seeing the end results. A:0)
Posted by: annette | March 27, 2009 at 10:11 PM
LOL!
I might not get much done over the weekend as Mike is in a Cricket Grand Final.....but I'm loving it so far.....so ni9ce to PLAY for ME!
Posted by: Lyn Dwyer | March 28, 2009 at 10:37 AM
ok....yes I'm all caught up now.....LOL!
Yes...promise I'll share the finished project.....
Posted by: Lyn Dwyer | March 28, 2009 at 10:46 PM